> Chris Roberts, a security researcher with One World Labs, told the FBI agent during an interview in February that he had hacked the in-flight entertainment system, or IFE, on an airplane and overwrote code on the plane’s Thrust Management Computer while aboard the flight. He was able to issue a climb command and make the plane briefly change course, the document states.
> “He stated that he thereby caused one of the airplane engines to climb resulting in a lateral or sideways movement of the plane during one of these flights,” FBI Special Agent Mark Hurley wrote in his warrant application
Goes without saying this is so reckless and dangerous. Was he ever charged? I couldn't find any information.
The telling quote from the linked Wired article is:
Although Roberts hasn’t been charged yet with any crime, and there are questions about whether his actions really did cause the plane to list to the side or he simply thought they did,
"or he simply thought they did"
The principal article for this thread concerns some far more open hackers who had an entire functioning COVID grounded aircraft scheduled for scrapping to play with. They assert that, as expected, the in flight entertainment and flight control systems are fully isolated as required to meet FAA regulations.
"caused one of the airplane engines to climb" is about what you'd expect from a bad Hollywood take, so I think you're being overly polite with regard to the validity of his claims
"Roberts had previously told WIRED that he caused a plane to climb during a simulated test on a virtual environment he and a colleague created, but he insisted then that he had not interfered with the operation of a plane while in flight."
So they wrote a simulation without knowing how any of it works and then showed they could hack their own cobbled together mess.
"They built a test lab using demo software obtained from infotainment vendors and others in order to explore what they could to the networks."
Yep, cobbled together random non-production infotainment software which is isolated from the actual flight systems. Generally only certified to DO-178 DAL Level D/E since they are isolated in such a way that total failure or even maliciousness can not possibly cause a meaningful safety impact.
The functional equivalent of claiming you could totally steal from a bank vault because you successfully stole some pens from the counter. Just another self-aggrandizing idiot.
